Management practices that reduce the opportunities for infectious agents to gain access to a production unit is commonly referred to as biosecurity. Biosecurity is an aspect of disease prevention with the goal of preventing the introduction of disease agents which could have detrimental health and economic consequences. Every population should be evaluated for risks to animal health and develop a biosecurity plan to address the operation specific risk factors. A pasture raised pork operation has different biosecurity risks than a confinement swine operation. All biosecurity measures must be followed to reduce the risk of disease. For example, a beef operation might reduce their risk of disease by having a closed herd and not purchasing replacement heifers or cows raised off farm. However, if that farm shares bulls with neighbors that purchase adult cows, the risk of disease is not reduced.
Management practices to reduce the effects of an infectious agent in a production unit is referred to as biocontainment. Biocontainment is an aspect of biosecurity with the goal of preventing the spread of a pathogen within and between groups of individuals. An example of biocontainment would be isolating sick individuals to prevent effective contacts and reduce disease transmission. Surveillance of the group with and without the pathogen must be done to monitor the effectiveness of the biocontainment measures.